EUROPA
Not gonna happen  -  THEME 
 Backstory

'Europa' or 'TAKO' (our preferred callsign) was a cyberpunk game project I created with Grit Studio, a long since extinct game development company back in 2011-2012. The project didn't have an official title, as the production never went further than the conceptualizing / world design level.

I was wrapping things up at the university at the time and I was looking for a subject for a thesis, and I happened to meet an entrepreneur looking for people like me to participate in his development process.

The company, Grit Studio, was a startup and the devs were fresh from school themselves, and everybody was kind of learning the ropes as we went. After I graduated I took up an internship of six months to continue working on the TAKO project. We never managed to push out anything of substance, other than my concept art and illustration.

The coordination was in short not optimal, and most of the folks in the studio were kind of concentrated on their own tasks, some with outsourcing, others in various projects - none of which materialized AFAIK. My greatest take-home lesson from TAKO was that you have to have a great measure of discipline to complete anything - hell, to take anything further than the innovation part.

Back then I had only a very basic understanding of game design, let alone conceptualizing. Now when I look back at my designs I guess it was more important for me that my visual works looked 'cool' rather than actually being plausible, interesting and useful concepts well-communicated onto the canvas. Another thing that really bothers me when I look back at the designs is how nothing is consistent - something I learned years later.

There are so many things I could have done differently, but I suppose that's just my more developed mind nagging me now - back then I had no clue. Still, I have absolutely no regrets; I learned immensely, had an excellent time and forged a lifelong friendship with the former CEO. With TAKO I was introduced to the professional side of game design, and I'll never look back on that path, despite the pain and suffering inherent to this business.


 The Project

If you want to read through the thesis I wrote, you can access it here. However interesting, the thesis covers mostly the early part of the innovation process, at which point we had a bunch of vague ideas and the thematic concepts planned.

Being a huge fan of Judge Dredd, this project referenced the comics quite a bit. Other inspirations for my designs include the Planet of Adventure series by Jack Vance, Deus Ex, Underground by Andrew Vachss and the BLAME! -manga by Tsutomu Nihei.

I'll paste here some content from the actual design documents I wrote, along with some drawings I made for the project. It's too much of a hassle to revise these with detail - I'll serve them raw to anyone who's interested. Keep in mind that I wrote these years ago. I don't want to hear no trash about how shitty my game designs are...! If you spot a blatant ripoff then good on you - you're educated. My musings here amount to little, but here you can see one of my first attempts at world design. Take from it what you will and I hope you enjoy.

EUROPA
Dystopian futuristic citystate, divided into several massive cantons. Essentially EUROPA is a megastructure of endless tunnels, spires and cubicles. Population mostly post-indo european, with heavily mixed genetical heritage; the people should not look like of any diverse culture of ethnicity, but rather a mixture of each. The balance of power between societies (which are large conglomerates basically) is quite fragile and coups are attempted often, but are rarely successful. In essence, the citystate is a form of feudal anarchy, with subtle intercine warfare between the controlling societies, which depend on eachother to thrive. All employed people are workers of one society or the other, usually depending on place of birth.

About the architecture of EUROPA
The width nor range of the city should not be revealed. Such information should at least be costly and vague at best. Mayhaps many dwellers of the city do not even know what lies beyond the colonization, which becomes more infrequent the further you journey from the city. The sky could be shrouded by motley clouds of pollution everywhere, to the point of most buildings having visual screens in stead of windows. Inside, the higher you climb, the more luxury and eccenticity you are to find.

General atmosphere
In such a city as EUROPA, one is bound to find all manner of perversions, sleaze and filth: whatever mankind by-produces from existing amidst total leisure. The feeling of the populus should sometimes bounce from happy-go-go to nearing insanity to extreme evil (selfishness and indifference: the two biggest issues and perhaps key themes in the game?). There should be also 'soft' and lively areas as well, which can be enhanced with architectural design. Chaotic detail is the trace of humanity, whereas inhuman locations should have less detail and more hard, reflecting surfaces and more functional designs. The key thematical point here is that the city, though futuristic, should emanate the feeling that humanity has devolved back to the feudal age - even the visuals can reflect this with medieval-like styles. Immense companies represent the kingdoms/fiefdoms, and Gods have returned, this time in artificial form.

Artificial intelligence
In charge of the operation of Europa's machinery and the seemingly automated construction and de-construction of the city blocks. Unlike what the chasmites have deducted, is not actually an electronic device or a highly evolved computer conciousness, but rather, a living organism of unknown nature. AI has a physical body alike a tumor or a growth. It senses all the citizenry and their individual actions via manufactured chips that are secretly installed during sleep, or in fact, convocation sessions. The AI is an immoral and whimsy creature to heart, and it will be a grand task to convince it of any other truth but its own, yet for all its omniscience, it is a mortal creature many centuries old, and is dying because of the degenerative nature of biological cells and accumulated background radiation.

Pilgrims
These people are the freaks of the city, with no ties to one house or the other, but rather, a unique connection between eachother. They are roamers, seemingly on a constant vigil, looking for an unspecified thing from the deep vaults and archways of Europa. Rumors say the pilgrims can access Convocation with nothing more than sheer will. They were created by the AI, as it transmogrified it's own mutated DNA with human DNA, and thus created a breed of superhumans capable of controlling Europa should the AI perish. Two dozen pilgrims were cultivated initially and of whom only six remain.

Automatons
Immense construction units, controlled remotely by the AI. They do not seemingly possess any distinct intellect, yet maintain their constant repairs of the cityscape to make it better to live for it's inhabitants.

Galatea
The protector of Sivishe Canton: a powerful, artificial entity containing a willing soul, taken from a deceaded person from the convocation. A tall, gaunt and frail-looking sculture that monitors the surroundings, and acts upon witnessing unlawful actions being committed. Sivishite regions are littered with such pieces of enigmatic artwork, that regulate the entropic law of the land.

Angels
The triggerhappy elite mercenaries with heavy firepower and punkish styles, who are universally despised all around the metropole. Whenever the player character meets or is in any contact with such individuals, it will almost always spell trouble.

The Cantons (areas the companies control)

Inter Sivishe
A massive, momentous nexus of trendsetters, of style and of anything relevant, at least if you ask a fad-junkie who is unwitting thrall of the dominating society of the canton: the Mercade. Though one of the weakest of the societies, it's main asset is the control over people's pastime. Most come to the sivishite district to enjoy the plenty of pleasures available to anyone of at least standard merit.
Typical quote: "I mean... It's just... I mean... With the leather and all... It doesn't leave much to the imagination."

Pastiche ('the purple')
Pulsating heart of the bureucracy and couriership of EUROPA. Though having no strong militia force on their own, the dominating society of The Derogators draw their power from being the experts on manipulation, espionage and the art of mathematics, inventions, physics and hoarding of technology.
Typical quote: "The old ward, also known as Wanker City."

The Chasm
The energy outlet of the city, with the societies here having control over trade of power and the manufacturing of all sorts of assets. Humongous gravitational furnaces working deep under EUROPA harnessing the energy of the crust. The high council of the Chasmic Energy Board is rumored to be artificial, but this may be only usual gossip, spawned from the fact that CEB utilizes many robotic arms.
Typical quote: "Good morning, little servitor. Mommy is here, don't be afraid. Mommy loves you, you know? So be a good little girl and be good to mommy too."

Mai ('the pasture')
The centre of the agricultural zone, breeding food and distilling water to keep the neversleeping city running. Thermometered, weather-controlled and regulated within numerous duraplast domes. Dominating society: Composture LTD, its interest in maintaining power through sabotaging any advances and inventions on the field of farming, food-cloning or anything concerning nourishment, as well as the recycling of waste.
Typical quote: "They are at best yokels from the shitstained compost pastures. "

Memnosyne
We also added the a fifth company, which is a totalitarian paramilitary outfit with rigid codes of conduct and a system of of honor and rank.


Atmospheric ideas
* experimental post-reform music (which truly IS experimental, with almost cacophonic feeling to it, should perhaps impose the vanity of the age, how can someone enjoy music so chaotic? Sivishivetes at least pretend to.)
* Sivishivetes with the most extraordinary suits, outfits, dresses and coiffures, like nothing ever seen.
* the principles of concealed community policing: enforcers of the prime societies commonly blend amongst the multitude of people simply by dressing as any of the other, carrying no ID nor badge of identity, causing one to be wary of crossing his society in fear of retaliation. Sleeper agents, if you will.
* the pansogmatic prosis, a philosophy on the divinity of the human essence, ascending from the ragged remains of the religions.
* soldiers of fortune for the hire, called the "angels" or similar while being mere ruffians. As they say, some angels protect the meek and the innocent - others cost around $100.
* on loading screens, display common anecdotes known in the city (streetwise japes, with accordance to whichever canton you currently are in)

Game ideas
* in multiplayer games it is possible to infiltrate a rival society as a sleeper agent, and maybe even convert to the other one.
* real projectile weapons might be very expensive or rare. Once you go AWOL, your guns seize functioning and you must obtain new ones with great difficulty, cunning and subtlety.
* once you've played a good deal of the game, you have lots of allowance of course. Where to put your hard earned-cash? Surgeries and augementation should be available, implants to allow shooting lasers out of an integrated ass-cannon and such nonsense for the powerfreaks.
* an option to buy an atomic bomb and destroy a huge chunk of the city (ending the game after some nice FX's). cost: 100000 golds
* an option to join a simulation of tribal life on the mauritians in the fifth century A.D. (ending your game)

Here are a few ideas concerning the actual plot of the game. TAKO was at first supposed to be a shooter-type game with a first-person perspective, but we altered it so that we planned it to be a dialogue-driven mystery adventure, possibly with no "game world", but more like a visual novel.

STORY INTRODUCTIONS FOR AN ANGEL STORYLINE (choose one)

ERASER :::: Four assassinations must be carried out with all subtletly, caution and vigilance: from the targets, omit the house in which you belong to. The plot thickens after these assignments are carried out, as it becomes clear that the protagonist must afterwards either embrace his/her house's batshit insane plan, or rebel and join the cause of the blackout anarchists to correct his/her past mistakes.
+ An involving plot, in which the player may choose between numerous (at least 3 should be available at any case) methods of conduct to carry out the assassinations.
+ No need to graphically visualize random parts of the city, as the player should be transported to his/her next target without delay
+ Get to think of ingenious ways to kill people using the surroundings.
- Morally ambiguous (not necessarily a con)

THE SEARCHERS :::: Find the parts for the ancient wonder of technology: the solar transmutator, no longer replicable, that each of the houses are secretly attempting to acquire to gain immense power. Once you have the parts, the options arise to either sell them, give them away, assemble them yourself and see what comes out, or to destroy the whole thing without remorse.
+ Treasure hunt in various exotic locations! (the sewers, the dung pits, the back rooms of the salons of sivishe... etc.)
+ A simple storyline that even an idiot can follow
- A hell-of-a-lot to visualize I suppose

THE INHERITANCE :::: The player character's undying loyalty to his house of birth comes to question as circumstances arise suspicions against them. You manage to secure proof of your own house's misdeeds and must act on your instinct: to be loyal to the house or to Europa and the law? Or to just do silly things like buy a nuclear device and detonate the whole city to smithereens? You decide.
+ Heap of betrayal and plot twists imminent. Delicious.
+ Might be a great way to explore the politics of the cyberpunk metropole.
- A lot of consequences to figure out in the way of storytelling - which in essence means a shorter experience for the player, but a lot more to play again for.

GITS :::: You come in contact with a being from either the Convocation or from somewhere completely elsewhere, which seems to adhere to you for unknown reasons, and must find the truth behind this creature. Is it a figment of your imagination? A mere illusion? Can you find source before your suspicion counter deems nonexistance.
+ If you liked Heather from Bloodlines, wait till you meet this awesome cyber-ghost that haunts you... romantically.
+ A chance to actually write people feeling something.
+ Can be combined with some other storyline, if the timelines are met.
- Not very epic.

STORYTELLING THEMES

- Serious, pure objective POV
- Sarcastic, farce or a fashion of dark comedy for narrated by an overbeing with a hint of twisted personality
- PC Narrative, a subjective view of the situation through the mind and the eyes of the player character


LOCATIONS

Memnosyne:
- Drill grounds
- The hangar
- The barracks
- Field medical centre

Chasm:
- Geothermal furnaces
- Assembly factory
- Birthing vats
- The surgeon's conclave
- Pit of Lucius

Sivishe:
- Inter sivishe plaza
- The bazaar of bribery
- Red lights alley
- Scenery boulevard
- Tattoo parlor
- Back alley
- Underground hideout
- Drug den
- Quick market
- The residential spire

Mai:
- The agricultural pastures
- Machines of the ancestors
- Meadow
- Port Nedala

Pastiche:
- Ruins of the old ward
- A secret outpost
- Base zero
- The vault of knowledge

Other:
- Blackout shelter
- Outskirts
- Endoshell abandoned research facility
- The Levitator

I also wrote a lengthy detailing of a possible plot for an adventure in EUROPA. The quality, as was typical of this time, is likely not staggeringly good.

STAGES OF THE MAIN PLOT

0. Officially our protagonist is an investigator of the United Council, on an assignment to discover the hidden place of the five remaining pilgrims, and to annihilate these dangerous individuals. In truth, he/she is actually a pilgrim, turned into an assassination-puppet.

1. Protagonist awakes from his own apartment in the canton of Sivishe, and has a conversation with his/her imaginary friend about what came to pass on the night before. The friend advices him/her to check his mail. Laying around in his apartment, there are a couple of things that can be taken with you, for example a handgun. Once he/she exits his home spire, he/she meets a deranged hermit on the street just outside his/her apartment, who questions the nature of reality. This should be interpreted as just crazed ravings of a junkie lunatic, but might actually initiate a response of thought for the player.

2. The city is now free to explore.  The protagonist can visit each of the leading houses and get treated to bribes, threats or obviously ignoral, depending on his/her current fame variable. The first solid clue to be found is located at a sivishe nightclub back alley, after asking around for suspicious individuals inside the compound. There is a drugged out junkie, who spouts a lot of nonsense and insults the player in numerous ways, and says that he/she hasn't got a clue to what's really going on behind the scenes. Among his speech, he hints that perhaps the protagonist should try to gain access to the memnosyne gray zone combat casualty laboratories and field medic facilities, seeing as they're holding a live pilgrim on their hands which they hauled into custody after he caused a deadly scene on the very site (the back alley). This is the most that can be squeezed out of the brigand before he loses conciousness.

3. Next logical step is to somehow infiltrate the memnosyne laboratory, and this can be done in several ways: impersonating a memnosyte official, as the sentries will likely deny entry to a bloodhound of the Council to snoop around; or to ask around for a secret way into the laboratories, and a random hobo (actually an angel that can be a companion) will suggest that the player shoot him/herself in the leg to get carried into the medical ward. Once the player is in, he will find a dissected body and a heap of medical records from the autopsy. The corpse has been found rather strange in many ways, as the DNA-structure is far from normal, and there should be a lot of speculation on the origin of the humanoid creature by the forensic doctor ("...this confirms our suspicions about the claimed terrorist assault on Pleasuredome and the medical mystery that was the appendage found at the site with similar DNA-structure."). Browsing the medical records, a guard surprises the player and holds him/her at gunpoint - a situation which he/she must defuse somehow (being charming, lying convincingly, being a friend of memnosyne, having the ability to incapacitate the guard... etc.)

4. The previous hints about the severed arm lead the player to investigate the location of the terrorist attack mentioned in the medical document. While the Pastiche has spread false information about the incident, claiming it to be a BA suicide bombing strike, the truth in actuality is that two houses (Pastiche vs. Mai) both attempted to apprehend a pilgrim detected there. The opposing squads got into a firefight however, and in the process the pilgrim lost his arm, which was left on the scene when the memnosyne peacekeeper unit arrived. Pastiche won the attack against Mai agents, and hastily their derogators put forth a front to cover up the real motives and perpetrators.
Options to consider here:
- Ask BA about what happened: If and when you find a dude to actually even talk to you, he outright denies BA being resposible for the bombing, suggesting that the player find some other evidence elsewhere. Jokingly he will state that such a location as the Pleasuredome is not on today's bombing quota.
- Find out who was present: A security footage, once hacked will indicate that a large number of Pastiche and Mai agents were there on the time of the incident. The Pastiche agents have used concealed identity chips, utilizing the corporation name Neocyne, an extinct slave corporation of Memnosyne, and a memno clerk will reveal this if asked about it, causing the player to suspect that false identities were used upon entry to Pleasuredome. A memnosyne companion can reveal this without a visit to the memno HQ. In addition to the twelve agent tags, an unidentified tag belonging to the pilgrim was also detected by the scanner. To get the security footage, the player can either: Hack the device himself or persuade or buy the BA to do it for you. Talking the BA to do it should be fairly effortless, as they are eager to prove their innocense if pushed.
- Investigate Mai if you have seen the security footage or questioned successfully the pasticheans: redundant, but possible. The only possible hint the player can get here concerns the two pilgrim lovers, but anything said is very mundane and unspecified.
- Investigate Pastiche if you have seen the security footage: To exchange information, an equal or greater amount of data or services is required, thus says the prime principle of the Pastichean philosophy. Once the player enters the Pastichean region, a high derogator (Nero) will get in contact with him/her. This person already knows what the player is after, and will propose an trade of sorts: do an assignment for him, and he will tell you of the pilgrim they captured. If the player declines, he/she may always return to accept it, or persuade Nero to spill something revealing.

5. Nero's assignment for you is one of an assassination. On a Sivishe turf, an enemy of the Pastiche roams freely, protected by the galateias, and this man must be killed. Intel says that he is located presently in a memnosyne-styled bar. Once the player find him, he can be killed in numerous ways: Slay him on toilet with your gun, though this means obviously that the galatea will await you outside the bar and instantly retaliate for unlawful conduct; a chasmite patron can be persuaded to turn off the surveillance for repairs in which case an alarm will not set off; if you have the hacker companion, she may activate the disinfection compression, a procedure which will crush and maul the target instantly to death: a player of the hacking preference may ask the target to show off his expensive handgun, and simultaneously access the gun to go off, to shoot a memnosyne patron to death, in which case the galatea will slay the target as soon as he runs off; the third way is to purchase poison or narcotics from the BA black market and murder him by spiking the sythethic alcohol shot. After the target is dead, or if the player managed to persuade Nero to give the information without any cost, he will offer his gratitude, and abruptly reveal that the pilgrim has escaped the custody of the pasticheans, and their spies lost track of him when he entered chasm territory.

6. Now it seems it is time for out hero to dare the great Chasm that dominates the western premises of the city. Alike with many other houses, there is only a singular reception building for outsiders that can be accessed before this quest is unlocked. A chasmite clerk (an unnaturally beautiful cyborg creature) is waiting at a counter, and can be conversed with, but who, if asked, will deny entry to further areas of their realm. She can provide general information about the organization, Presently, there are a few ways to advance:
- The nervous newbie clerk can be swayed to leave her post and ask of the matter from her superiors, and in the meanwhile the player may simply enter the place. Requires expensive apparel or a fake ID.
- Take a controlled tour inside the robotic factories and while the guide is looking elsewhere, skip into the local automated factory lines, and help yourself through the assembly lines to the chasm compound.
- Hacking the guide on the tour to grant you entry to the inner corridors.
Once you advance through this obstacle, you find yourself staring down at a seemingly endless downward chasm. This is one of the numerous chances to kill your annoying angel companion by casually pushing him down the immense chute ("... after enduring the expected litany of death-threats and curses you hear a satisfying *crunch* as his limp corpse repeatedly hits the chasm's walls and he disappears into the crimson void below.")

7. Once the player is in, it is time to learn the location of the missing pilgrim. There is a mainframe in the empty recreational area nearby which containts access to the chasmic news network, meant only for chasmite citizens. Amidst the mechanical garbage and jargon, the player will find news of an intruder who was apprehended recently, but in his wake managed to disable a whole city block. This is obviously the pilgrim, and his present location (as a chasmite zombie) according to the news article is reactor 75, located in the molten depths of the chasm, working some mundane labor duty. After descending into the geothermal furnaces, he/she will at last find this pilgrim and notice the artificial augmented arm, identifying him as the missing pilgrim. Unfortunately, his will is gone due to the pacifying process the chasmites instill upon such intruders and the ilk.

8. The discovery is made, but at the very time, a group of chasmite security drones surround the player and take him/her into custody. If the memno-companion is present, he will protect the player (he can be asked not to) against the apprehension, and slay the guards, where afterwards the two make a hasty escape. If not, he/she is taken to the holding brigs, where also the chasmite hacker companion and the former Council investigator is being held. A hacker can open a panel inside the wall, open the door and make his/her escape; a charmful female protagonist may coax the occasional turnkey to let her out; but if neither of these are done, your mysterious friend will eventually open it for you. You may opt to stay if you like, in which case you are turned into a mindless drone and the game ends.

9. Now, the player has hit a dead end. He/she has found no living pilgrims, and on top of that, the council calls him/her for a hearing on the case. At the council meeting, differentiating opinions arise: some representatives claim the project should be discontinued, especially Mai, who does it with suspicious vigor and Pastiche to some degree, while the others have no qualms against it. They make a vote, and 3 to 2 it passes in favor of continuance. After the sequence, the memnosyne elder (who coincidentally is the biological father of the memno-companion, a chance to explore the peculiar family relations in memnosyne) approaches the player and comments on his suspicions against the Mai representative: he was much too insistent during his speech, and may hide something. The man suggests the player infiltrate the Mai embassy if possible and see if he/she can discover something about the matter.

10. When the player next returns home after the previous step, he/she will find it trapped and unable to leave, as the door gets jammed. A toxin of some sort starts to fill the room, and he/she must escape with his/her life. Behind the door, in the condo corridor, lurks the assassin responsible for this hideous attempt on your life. He will attack and the player must somehow (and without companions) put him out of his misery. When this is done, the player drags the body inside his apartment and inspects it, only to find it seemingly one of the pilgrims he/she was out for. If the blood is taken with the DNA-inspector apparatus (given at the very start of the game), and taken to a private clinic in Sivishe territory (a really dirty and messy reception), the quack there will look the blood over and state that there are two different blood types mixed in the sample, and the curious abnormal blood present there is actually rejecting the average blood, and the man who had this blood in his veins couldn't have lived longer than a few days. If this is not done (and it probably rarely is), the player might think he has nailed the third pilgrim now, and only two remain to be found.

11. A few ways to advance from this dead-end seeming situation: Storm the embassy of the Mai representative for a Mai access code (which is located in Sivishe turf); search the Mai premises (useless); hack your way into the pastichean databases (a minigame of some sort); Enter the outskirts behind the Mai domes and make your way through the sewage systems (must locate a map first or get lost and crushed by various kinds of machinery); Do a quest for the memno-boss where you must find out the identity of a Mai spy amidst the ranks of his high officers (and afterwards you get the passcode from the tortured spy). Once you have the information, or you manage to find your way through the subterrainean parts, you get inside the private sections of the Mai Spine (a collection of smaller biodomes) and gain entry to the biodome where your missing two pilgrims are either by direct entry, or by coercing a Mai elder (in an airtight protective suit for some reason) whose private lab is nearby. The pilgrims are kept in a state of ignorance since their powers are so vast and because of the harm they can thus commit. Inside the whole shell compound, the air is filled with a strain of biological anesthetic which only a person of certain lineage can inhale and stay concious. Here is the point where your companions will be stunned and rendered unconcious. The bio-engineer elder is astonished that the special microbe has not affected you in any way, which of course must mean only one thing. He gives in the two pilgrims' unique heritage since you are so interested as to defy death and consequence itself by infiltrating the premises. If you enter the inner shell you can converse with the pilgrim couple; they profess to remembering you faintly from some connection (you are in all actuality functionally their brother or sister), but due to the memory wipe, they have no recollection of when and where they might have known you. If you have the information from the elder, you may go against his wishes and spill the beans here, which might lead to some cataclysmic events... or not. Kinda depends on the disposition of the two. You may also murder them if you want. The bottom line is: the elder will want to test your blood, and upon doing so, he discovers that you are in fact a pilgrim yourself.

12. The elder bioengineer will insist that you stay there with the other two pilgrims and undergo a memory wipe like they have. You may agree, in which case the game ends here for you. If you disagree, he'll state that he has already alerted the guards and soon after and you will be wanted in the whole city. He may be killed, which leads to the same situation. You must escape through the ancient machines of the ancestors deep below the domes and return to the outskirts, now as an outlaw. Once you get here, you'll probably have a conversation with your companion about it if you have one (here comes a companion loyalty test, where your "friend" might actually take your life). You really have nowhere to go, except into Blackout territory, who might not care about your identity. If the player ventures into the regions of one of the houses at this point, he is immidiately taken into custody and summarily executed for crimes of the pilgrimage.

13. As the player is now outlawed, he/she has three options:
- He/she must either venture into the outskirts, out from Europa, in which case the game ends.
- Surrender to the memnosyne authorities in which case you're treated to a mock trial, where if you cannot gather enough evidence, you are executed as an enemy of the city. With sufficient evidence, you may either tell the truth of the matter, or twist it to your liking. In all likeliness, you are executed after the trial, but you may also submit to the memorywiping treatment (and the doctor who treats you will utter something in the like of: "you again?") and live your life again as an assassin for the council (game end).
- Get in contact with your mysterious friend who could know more about this affair. You have to call him (he will hint to this: "Call me when you know", this might read as a graffiti somewhere in the city...) to actually do this, and he will reveal his location which is a abandoned research facility of the long-extinct Golgatha Heavy Industries. The player will find the friend here, hanging from wiring and tubes alike a tragic marionette and he will open conversation with the player here. He needs the player's blood to execute his own plan: via the convocation uplink, send signals to each person using the convocation that will force their brain to create molecules that will transform their blood into the pilgrim variety. If the player agrees, this will eventually lead to mass extinction and the fall of the Europa civilization, as the blood is incompatible with normal human DNA (as can be deducted from investigating the blood of the assassin).
- Inside Golgotha Heavy Industries, the AI is located behind immense, monumental slabs of solid steel, encased in a magnificient sphere the automatons have built for it's protection. If you decline the friend's offer, he will commit a suicide. Through his console, if you have enough suspicion (gathered in the game), after reading the history records, you will discover that something must lurk beneath the Golgotha facility. The AI naturally, and if you know enough, you can grant yourself access to converse with this being, to see the madness of the heap of flesh that controls the city. The AI will spout a lot of nonsense, and will require your body for it's own survival. This has been it's goal for decades, as it has realized it's impending death and Adam and Eve (the two pilgrims) were meant for it to consume, to prolong it's life. You may submit your body for it's machinations, persuade it to meld it's own conciousness with yours, or detonate a miniature atomic device inside the heavy shell of the AI, plunging Europa fast into anarchy, as all electronics shut down, making Blackout Anarchists thrive in a new era of dark ages. It should also become clear that the Golgotha Heavy Industries is the original supercompany from which the five remaining companies originated from, and the AI is this company's child.


(c) Heikki Kuusipalo 2017 - return to skyesken.org